Cuthbert

No this isn't a thread discussing religion - I need help with stuff in the Bible because my philosophy essay is on Soren Kierkegaard and Christian ethics. Problem is, I'm not Christian and I have a very limited knowledge of the Bible. So I was wondering if anyone on here can help me find some things that I'm looking for so that I won't be flipping through thousands of pages

Firstly, I need to know everything the Bible says about ethics. >.< Yes, it's a very general question, but I really don't know anything specific to ask. It doesn't need to be in much detail, I just need to know what God defines as "ethics" and an "ethical person." Also, I need a few specific verses to quote from to explain that. And do Biblical ethics have anything to do with the 10 commandments?

Secondly, I believe I've read somewhere that the Bible states that ethics is founded on love. Is there any truth to this? If so, can someone ellaborate on this statement and also tell me where I can find a few verses about it in the Bible?


That's all the questions I can think of for now - I just started writing though so I'll probably have many more questions (and hopefully more specific questions when I get more reasearch done) soon.

Many thanks in advance.

Llywelyn

What are you defining as "ethics." The bible never uses that word, to my knowledge. If you mean it in the sense I think you mean it, what it says on ethics would take a few books, possibly with lots of scholarly discussion on what it says in English versus the original languages. If we start comparing and cross-referencing between individual chapters or talking about where some of the laws come from (cross-referencing the Code of Hammurabi, among other sources) then this will take even longer.

In the most general of terms, the old testament settles around the Ten (Eleven) Commandments, the Gospels settle around forgiveness.

Crystal Tears

As far as ethics in terms of Old Testament, you might want to check out Proverbs. In the New Testament, I'd start out readining Matthew chapters 5-7 if I were you.

Well, in the New Testament Jesus says "If you love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15) Is that what you're getting at? My interpretation of the verse is that Christians should act not based on fear of retribution, but on love for their savior.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck with your paper!

Cuthbert

I mean, what does the Bible define as "right and wrong." I'm guessing "right" and "wrong" in the Bible are synonymous with "obedience" and "disobedience." The commandments include "love your God" and "love your neighbour" - an order demanding one to feel love suggests that obeying the law means everything and one's own conscience and feelings have nothing to do with right and wrong. Therefore, I concluded that the Bible has explicitly stated the absolute ethical demands of each individual, and that the individual takes no part in defining ethics. However, that doesn't mean all individuals must follow God's requirement, thus in present society everyone seems to have their own view on what's right and what's wrong.

I'm not sure if that's right or not, c'est pourquoi I'm asking online.

Also, what's the eleventh commandment? I've never heard of it.

Mallory

Check the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians for just about everything you need.

Llywelyn

You would be wrong and, as I indicated earlier, this is the kind of thing you could write several books on.


No, they don't. That is the answer Jesus gave when asked "which is the most important" of the ten commandments.

There are over 300 of these rules, and they don't all agree (e.g., the topic of rape during time of war--see Zechariah 14:2) and many of them require additional steps to apply to modern times.

This is also not true in the more general sense of interpretation (see the conflict between the latin church and the celtic church).

The commandments in the bible are not enumerated. Leviticus 19 is what you are looking for.

Amazing. You don't refer him to the ten commandments, to Deuteronomy, or anything that Jesus is actually purported to have said. Instead you refer him to the work of Saul, a man who never met Jesus, actively persecuted Christians in his younger years, and like as not was pushing his own agenda as much as anything "Christian."

Am I the only one who thinks that being "Christian" is about following Christ's teachings?

Also, are you referring to passages such as this one?

ellies

"Wrong" is anything that hurts your or others' feelings or body. "Right" is the opposite. In a nutshell that's what the Bible says.


They are not the orders. They are advice, prescription for better life.

God created this world and everything in it. He is the only one who has the ultimate knowledge of how it operates and how we, human beings, function. Through the Bible God explains this mechanism to us. He doesn't invent the rules just for the sake of it. He writes manual on using his creation so that we don't get hurt and we don't hurt the others.
He says: Do not steal, do not murder. Why? Because if you do so you will make others suffer and because of feeling guilty you will suffer as well (if you are not and a**hole of course). It will put pressure on you and your family.

Do not cheat on your husband or wife because it will hurt his/her feelings, feeling of your children and those around you... and may be you (again if you are not cold-hearted). These days some people say that we shouldn't take our relationships very seriously so that we don't get hurt. They live free of guilt and believe it's the way it should be. I have met quite a few people of this type. They seem to be happy. But sooner or later this sense of guilt comes to them anyway and that's when the smelly staff hits the fan: depression, suicides, drugs and so on... Some Christians call it punishment for their sins. I prefer to say - consequences.

God also says: Do not envy! Psychologists say the same: jealousy doesn't lead anywhere but to anger, frustration and again... depression, drugs...

Many Christians believe (and I agree with them) that there's only one commandment: Love one another. Everything else listed after this first and main commandment is more like an indicator of love in you.
If you love the people around you will never do any of those things listed.

The most famous passages about love are: 1Corinthians 13 (try to replace word’love’ with ‘forgiveness’) and 1John, 3v16-17 and 1John 4v7-21


Each individual has free will. We can choose between crossing the street when the green light is on or when the red light is on. If we choose the second option we are very likely to get hurt.
This message goes through the entire Bible. Free will is the one to blame for our suffering. God could have chosen not to give us bad desires and put only love in our minds. Nobody would have been hurt then but we would have been like robots with no choice. God decided to give us all sorts of feelings and emotions so that we are free to choose, but that also leads to suffering because we do not always choose the healthy option.

I hope it will be of some help

MetalRepublican

There were 20 commandments. Didn't you see History of the World?
cheezzz.


Seriously, This is a good thread and I look forward to seeing reading it.

ToB

Like Llywelyn said previously, you cannot take the Biblical concept of ethics and sum it up into one post on a message board, but we can do our best.

Let's give some cursory information about the Bible for people who do not fully understand how it works.

First of all, the Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament centers around law and penance for breaking the law. During the Old Testament, the Jewish people were bound to hundreds and thousands of laws that were never able to be followed wholly, thusly requiring animal sacrifices to atone for the "sins" that were committed by breaking the law.

What is interesting, however, is that there wasn't always the law. In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit. That was the "law" at that point. The Biblical concept of ethics starts with the fact that God is the absolute truth, and everything must therefore be compared to his law and his truth. The Mosaic law (which governed most of the rest of the Old Testament and Judaism today) wasn't given until later, when it was given directly to Moses.

The second half of the Bible centers around the fact that Christ paid the penance for sin by sacrificing himself for us once and for all. One professing to be "Christian" believes this as core to their faith system. In the New Testament, the ethical concept is not based so much on rules and regulations, but rather on love (like you said above)... If you have self-sacrificing love for another person, you will not hurt that person intentionally. Christ embodied this by laying down his life so that we might all be free from sin.

To sum it up, the Biblical concept of ethics is based on the fact that God is the embodiment of absolute truth, and all "truth" must be compared to Him. God does not change, so truth according to Him will be the same today as it will be tomorrow. It could take a lifetime to understand this concept, and you will not be able to read three or four chapters in the Bible and assume that you grasp the entire thing.

Cuthbert

Wow, this is turning way more complicated than I thought! Thanks for all your responses - I'll do some research into the passages you guys mentioned and try to somewhat understand it all - and then I may ask some more specific questions on parts I don't understand. That'll probably be a while from now.

But in any case, the Bible does absolutely define what is right and what is wrong - am I correct in saying that? In the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites specific "do's" and "do nots" and also defined the punishments for breaking those laws; after Christ's sacrifice, those laws became simply "base your actions on love for God" because God embodies absolute goodness and truth?